


You Know Edward, Right?

by nightstarry



Category: Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Lesbians yay, Miscommunication, Mutual Pining, Pining, Romance, Slow Burn, also endearingly self possessed, bella is our awkward lesbian legend, inspired by jane austen’s emma?, rosalie will be oblivious, she grows dont worry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 03:09:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29552610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightstarry/pseuds/nightstarry
Summary: When Rosalie meets Bella Swan she takes pity on the poor girl - quiet, awkward, reeking of spearmint and missed chances. Out of the good of her cold, un-beating heart, Rosalie takes Bella under her wing and leads her right into the lions’ den - she sets her up with her brother, Edward, which seems like a perfect match until Rosalie realizes she’s fallen hard for her new best friend. Pining takes on a whole new layer of painful irony when you’re the one who shoved the girl you’re madly in love with right into the arms of your own brother.
Relationships: Rosalie Hale/Bella Swan
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	1. Chapter 1

In any position, Edward Cullen always retained an air of distinctly pensieve gratefulness that mimicked the buffed and milky surface of an ancient grecian bust - the pained expression of a beautiful warrior struck by a tragedy that he couldn’t seem to let go of. Even if, perhaps, any tragedy that Edward Cullen had ever experienced was a shortage of hair gel. That, and his untimely death, of course.“Did you hear? Chief Swan is rumoured to be welcoming a second to that lowly bachelor pad of his.” 

“Affair?” Questioned Rosalie, indulging in a deep - yet still dainty - sip from the pansy sprayed porcelain teacup she had balanced in her spindly fingers. While it was not necessary for vampires to consume human sustenance, the two eldest members of the Cullen clan had a bittersweet sort of affinity for the traditional partaking of teatime, and however irrelevant human food was to their survival, they still engaged in the activity without fail each day at 4 PM.

Edward scoffed, the closest thing to an undignified snort the immortal ever neared. He reached forward to pluck another cube of ice from the silver bowl in front of him with a pair of tiny tongs and dropped it into his own tea with a satisfying splash. He couldn’t handle his tea anything other than disgustingly sweet. “Please. The closest thing Charlie Swan has ever gotten to a ‘romantic entanglement’ is his relationship with Billy Black, and even then its doubtful he would ever get around to making a move. His own marriage was as platonic and terrifyingly dull as any romance can be. No, his daughter is moving back to stay with him.” 

“The mother died, then?” 

“No, although a miserable maiden plagued with grief would be entertaining. Remarried, I believe.” 

Rosalie pouted, and it struck a remarkable similarity to any supermodel one might glimpse splashed across the glossy front page of a high end magazine. “Nothing interesting ever occurs in this town. Not even we can rummage up any suitable gossip to take with our tea.” 

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Rose,” Edward clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth patronizingly. “Perhaps there is intrigue in this unfortunate newcomer still.” 

“Unfortunate in the sense that there is no amusement in her arrival and not unfortunate as in she is arriving in the wake of a gruesome tragedy. There can be no intrigue in that, dear Edward.” 

“Careful,” glinted an eye over the gold rimmed edge of his teacup, “you’re slipping into age-old tongue. No one nowadays calls their brother ‘dear’.” 

“I’ll be cautious to not repeat the error. Besides, if I was overheard, someone might be mistaken into thinking I like you.” 

“And we wouldn’t want that now, would we?” There was a long pause, the soft and quick movements of tea being sipped and cups being set down were so quiet the air was thick with a not-quite-silence. “So, shall we invite Chief Swan’s monotonous offspring to tea tomorrow?” 

Rosalie smirked, swallowing her last sip of tea. “We shall.” 

-

“You really have the most gorgeous house,” appraised Bella Swan in a gentle voice. 

Rosalie offered the girl her most partial smile - no teeth, a pink mixture of an offhanded sneer and a seductive pucker. “Thank you loads, Bella. How are you enjoying Forks?”

“Well,” Bella shifted atop the painfully plush sofa cushion, “I haven’t really been here long enough to give an accurate judgement, but I like it very much so far.” Bella offered her own version of a generically partial smile, this one teetering along the fine line between a shy grin and an uncomfortable grimace. 

“How is Charlie? I feel as if we haven’t seen him in ages,” Edward inquired, pouring an exceedingly healthy amount of rich white creamer into his tea. 

“He’s good.” 

“Have you gotten settled into your old room yet?” Edward probed further. “Did Charlie fix it up for you?” However tedious it may have been, the Cullens had familiarized themselves with mediocre human chitchat in order to blend in and move seamlessly in their environment. Edward and Rosalie were equipped with thousands of idiotic questions and topics to keep the undemanding human mind occupied.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m all moved in. Uh, honestly, I’m - “ Bella was wringing her small hands together in a nearly pained fidget, glancing down at her lap and back up again, “I’m not very good at small talk. I’m sorry. 

Clearing her throat, Rosalie smiled her best smile of reassurance, careful not to dazzle Bella with the full force of her no frills, mega watt smile - which was rarely ever distributed to anyone at all. “That’s alright. Just enjoy your tea. You can leave whenever you like.” 

Bella blushed thankfully and the action had blood pooling at her cheekbones - she smelled rather enticing, a heavenly mingling of spearmint toothpaste and the thick scent of strawberry flavored saltwater taffy, with just a touch of nutmeg. She downed the last of her tea, erupting in a flurry of coughs and sputtering. Rosalie and Edward exchanged a glance - not full of judgement, necessarily. Just wariness, perhaps. “This tea is delicious. What brand is it, my dad would love it.” 

“Oh, I brewed the tea myself,” confessed Rosalie in the least boastful way she could muster. “It’s an original blend. Pomegranate and cardamom.” 

“It’s great, really.” 

Rosalie opted to not repeat a necessary ‘thank you’, instead demanding bluntly, “You want to leave now, then?”

Bella flushed deeper still. She really would have tasted brilliantly, Rosalie mused. “I’m just sort of tired, with the move and all.” 

“Of course,” Edward stood languidly, brushing his hands rid of invisible crumbs. While Bella had nibbled along the crusts of a couple of tea cakes and cookies the two had set out in a fashionable arrangement, Edward had not indulged himself. Mountain lion was more his style, after all. Beginning to clear their place settings, he lined their discarded teacups on a delicate balance alongside his forearm. “Rosalie will see you out.”

Before Bella could squint and begin to wonder how Edward was managing such a mundane yet inhuman feat, Rosalie took her by the arm and ushered her quickly towards their ornately carved front doors. “I really am sorry if you were uncomfortable, that really was not our intention in inviting you to tea.” 

“That’s okay,” Bella ducked to stare at her feet, the toe of her dirty black Converse scuffing at the exquisitely polished tile floor. “I - I’m not exactly fluent in tea parties and socialization. I’m sorry if I was a bit of an inadequate guest. The truth is, you seem really cool.” 

Then it was Edward that Bella had been finding herself tongue tied in the presence of… A budding crush, perhaps? Bella had suddenly become just slightly more interesting. “Maybe I could convince you to come over again sometime? Just the two of us.” 

This pleased Bella, and she sighed with visible relief. “I would love that.” 

Rosalie’s sharp amber eyes glinted merrily. “Great.” 

“See you around at school, then?” Bella asked, wedging herself halfway out the door. 

“You can count on it.”


	2. Chapter 2

Rosalie spotted Bella in the cafeteria the next day, clutching a plastic lunch tray awkwardly and scouring the noisy room warily for a place to sit. 

“Bella,” Rosalie called out from her spot at the Cullens’ lunch table. Bella’s head snapped to her direction with a wide eyed, deer-in-the-headlights look of absolute terror, then softened when she noticed it was Rosalie, who beckoned her over with a few flicks of her delicate hand. 

“What are you doing?” Edward cocked his auburn head to the left, genuine confusion etched into his features. He was still under the impression that Bella had been uneasy in his presence because she didn’t like him. Rosalie had reason to believe it was quite the opposite, in fact. 

“Relax,” Rosalie huffed, patting his fist soothingly, which was sitting stiffly alongside his untouched lunch tray. His many prominent blue veins sometimes grossed Rosalie out, but it wasn’t as if his abnormally low temperature created some aversion to touching her brother. After all, she was just as cold. “I know what I’m doing.” 

When Bella had approached and was within earshot, Rosalie spoke again. “Would you like to sit?” 

The corner of Bella’s mouth lifted jauntily in an honest expression of interest at the offer, but she glanced uneasily at the rest of the Cullens hunched around the table and back at Rosalie with the same dear-in-headlights expression splashed across her face. 

“Don’t worry, they won’t bother. Too self involved.” She rattled off the names of all her siblings, who nodded and smiled at Bella, clearly receiving the message that Rosalie was blaring in their direction. If Bella was shy, forced conversation with Rosalie’s eerily attractive vampire family was the last thing that would make her feel at ease. That was a hurtle she could attempt to jump another day. “You can meet them more directly sometime else, when you feel more comfortable.” 

Though she didn’t seem completely convinced of her own safety, Bella slid rigidly into the seat next to Rosalie, setting her lunch tray down before her. 

“This school blows, doesn’t it?” 

Bella shrugged, thin shoulders working up and down and disturbing the crooked array of syrupy walnut curls that frosted the tops of her arms. She instead focused on breaking open a small package of baby carrots with her thumb and forefinger. “It’s not so bad. I met some people.” 

“Who?” Rosalie leaned forward, the tips of her golden ringlets brushing the filthy tabletop. She wondered who had possibly already struck Bella Swan’s fancy and beaten through her aversion to small talk.

“Um, Jessica Stanley and Angela Weber? I dunno if you know them,” Bella crunched on the end of a carrot, commencing to chew rapidly until she was able to swallow and finish the carrot off, reaching back into the package to have another at the ready. 

“I’ve seen them around. They surely can’t be as cool as me.” Rosalie wondered directly after speaking if Bella would take this as satire or a genuine exhibition of Rosalie being massively self involved and assume she was in possession of some morbid superiority complex. Rosalie was simply aware of her… more favorable traits, that was all. 

Thankfully, Bella cracked a smile and emmitted one of those small little laughs that was mostly composed of a gust of breath. It was rather endearing, anyhow. “I don’t think anyone is as cool as you.”

-

“Any boys catch your eye yet?” Rosalie prodded, nudging Bella’s cardigan covered side with her pointed elbow. Rosalie’s one fatal flaw in her appearance was her elbows - they were much too pointy for her liking. It was unsettling. 

“Oh,” Bella gave one of the fakest coughs Rosalie had ever heard. “No, not really.”

“Don’t lie to me, Bella, I thought we were becoming friends.” Rosalie provided her signature pout, this time better suited to getting what she wanted rather than lamenting that she hadn’t gotten what she wanted. Bella swayed on her feet and averted her eyes with a flimsy giggle. It was laughable, really, how easily people gave in when Rosalie pushed just a little. And she hadn’t even gone anywhere near the extents her abilities granted her. 

“We are, it’s just - I’ve never really thought about that stuff before.” 

“Sure you haven’t,” Rosalie let her gaze flick up and down the length of Bella’s body - which was indeed pretty, although slight and waifish, and nothing compared to the abudance of curves and dimples Rosalie had been gifted with. If she held herself with more grace and confidence, and didn’t currently possess two left feet, she would have been downright beautiful. Bella blushed, a feat Rosalie was learning was not a difficult response to elicit from the girl. 

“No, really. I - I guess none of the boys here are half bad, but I haven’t had the time to notice any of them yet. I can barely find my way around this place.” 

“Please, its barely bigger than a cottage here. Besides, you could always stop to ask a hot guy for directions.” 

“Was that Emmett guy your boyfriend?” Bella piped suddenly, not looking at Rosalie, who laughed. 

“What? No, why would you think that.” 

“I dunno, you two walked into the cafeteria together, and he had his hand in your back pocket - like in Sixteen Candles.” 

“He’s my brother, he was trying to steal my car keys. Why were you staring, Swan?”

Bella floundered like an over-the-top cartoon fish out of water. “I - uh, well - ”

“No, I get it. We like to make an entrance. I guess I should be glad we got your attention, apparently no one else here has yet.” 

Fingers played gingerly along the sides of her backpack straps, “Who knows?” 

“Don’t worry,” Rosalie waggled her eyebrows in an teasing mannerism, shimmying closer to Bella so that they were rubbing shoulders. “That’s easily remedied. Think of me as your personal matchmaker.” 

Bella laughed, waving goodbye and ducking into the doorway her next class. 

Rosalie stopped, cocking one impressive hip to stand and watch the brunette retreat with dainty, unassuming steps. Matchmaker. She liked the sound of that.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry if these chapters aren’t very long, but i am planning on updating this fic pretty frequently so i hope that makes up for it :)


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